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CHUMASH
Parshas Shemos - Revi'i with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, Hashem chooses Moshe to take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim. Hashem appears to Moshe in a burning bush and tells him to go to Paraoh.
We learned that Moshe had to run away from Paraoh, and he went to Midyan. There, he married Tziporah, the daughter of Yisro, and became a shepherd of Yisro’s sheep.
Hashem wanted to make Moshe the one to take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, but first tested him while he was a shepherd.
The way someone treats animals, who can’t take care of themselves, shows how they will treat people they lead, who also need help and can’t do certain things themselves. Hashem saw that Moshe was very careful with every sheep, and knew he would be a good choice to lead the Yidden.
Today’s Chumash begins with one of the times that Moshe was taking care of the sheep:
Moshe would take Yisro’s sheep deep into the wilderness so they wouldn’t eat from other people’s fields.
One day he came to a mountain called Har Chorev (this would later become Har Sinai, the mountain from which Hashem would give the Yidden the Torah).
On the mountain, Moshe saw a thorn bush that was on fire. A malach of Hashem appeared to him through the fire. Moshe saw that even though the bush was on fire, the fire wasn’t burning up the bush!
Moshe realized that he needed to stop what he was doing and pay attention to this Ruchnius sight: Why wasn’t the bush being burned up?
Moshe understood that Hashem was appearing through a malach in a prickly bush to show that He is with the Yidden in the painful Golus. But Moshe couldn’t understand — if Hashem is with the Yidden, how can there even be a Golus? If Hashem, like a flame of fire, is in the painful Golus, how come the Golus is not getting burned up? How can the Golus exist at all?
When Hashem saw that Moshe was trying to understand, Hashem called out to him from the bush. He called in a loving way, “Moshe, Moshe!” Moshe answered with humility, “Here I am. I am ready to hear what Hashem has to say.”
Hashem told Moshe not to come too close. He should take off his shoes, because this is a holy place! Then Hashem said to Moshe, “I am Hashem, the Aibershter of the Avos, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.” Moshe hid his face because he was afraid to look at Hashem!
Hashem told Moshe that He always saw how the Yidden were suffering in Mitzrayim, and will never close His ears to their cries. But now has come the time to do something about the Golus! Hashem now wants to take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, and bring them to Eretz Yisroel. Hashem told Moshe that he should go to Paraoh and tell him to let the Yidden go.
Moshe asked Hashem, “First of all, am I able to go speak to Paraoh without getting hurt? Second of all, do the Yidden deserve that a miracle should happen for them to go out of Mitzrayim?”
Hashem answered, “About the first question you asked, don’t worry, I will go with you. The burning bush that you see, where the bush isn’t getting burned by the fire, is a sign for you that you won’t get hurt. And for your second question, the Yidden deserve to come out of Mitzrayim because they are coming out to serve Hashem, to get the Torah on this very mountain where you are standing now.”
Then Moshe asked Hashem, “When I come to the Yidden, they are going to ask me how Hashem could let such terrible things happen. What should I tell them?”
Hashem answered, “Say to them that even though they can’t always tell, I am always with them in Golus.”
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Kuf-Vov and Kuf-Zayin.
In kapitel Kuf-Zayin we talk about four kinds of dangers a person can go through.
When the kapitel speaks about the people in each danger, it says that they cried out to Hashem when they were in pain.
From here we see that when we have any kind of troubles and something is bothering us, we need to cry out to Hashem to ask Hashem to help us. Then, like the posuk says many times, Yodu LaHashem Chasdo, Venifle’osav Livnei Adam — Hashem will show us His kindness and give us everything we need, and we will thank Hashem!
See Farbrengen Yud-Beis Tamuz 5727, Tehillim with Pirush Tehillas Menachem, p. 9
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud-Beis
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In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains how a beinoni is different than a tzadik.
We learned that the beinoni doesn’t do any aveiros, and when he davens his Nefesh Habehamis can’t even come up with ideas to make him do the wrong thing! So why is he called a Beinoni, which means in between? We said that a beinoni is between a tzadik and a rasha, but it sounds like a beinoni is just like a tzadik!
The Alter Rebbe explains that even though the neshama’s love for Hashem can make the Nefesh Habehamis go to sleep, it’s not pushing it away at all — it’s still there, just as strong. After davening, it wakes up and goes right back to what it was doing before.
The Beinoni has a hidden love for Hashem all the time, which helps him control his behavior. However, it’s not the strong feeling he has during davening which puts his Nefesh Habehamis to sleep. The Ahavas Hashem he has all day can only stop him from doing aveiros, but it can’t stop his Nefesh Habehamis from sending not good thoughts into his mind!
That’s why a beinoni is different than a tzadik. With a tzadik, the Nefesh Habehamis is pushed out of the body (or changed into a Yetzer Tov!). The beinoni, however, can only put his Nefesh Habehamis to sleep at certain times (like during davening). For the rest of the time, he needs to use the special koach Hashem gives him (Moach Shalit Al Halev) to always be in control!
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We know that there is a mitzvah for boys over Bar Mitzvah to put on Tefillin every day. It doesn’t matter if he is a big Talmid Chochom or can’t even read the Alef Beis.
The Rebbe Rashab said that the same thing is with the mitzvah of chinuch! All Yidden, whether they are big tzadikim or simple people, need to spend a half an hour every day thinking about the chinuch of their children.
They need to do everything they can — and even more! — to make sure that their children are going in the path of Yiddishkeit.
The Rebbe Rashab said this about a person’s own family, that we should think about what we can do to make sure that they are happy to be Yidden and follow Torah and mitzvos.
The Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe added something more: That every Yid needs to think every day, not only about their own family, but about ANY Yid who needs to be brought into the path of Yiddishkeit. We need to think about every Yid that is not yet living a life of Torah, and try to see what we can do to help bring them closer to Yiddishkeit. (See sicha Yud-Tes Kislev 5726)
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Today we started a new set of halachos, about if a person hurts someone else, or breaks or ruins something belonging to them.
Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #236) is that if a person makes someone else get hurt, he needs to pay him to make up for what he did. (In fact, we learn that there are five kinds of damage that he might need to pay: For the part of him that got hurt, the pain, the doctor bills, that he is missing work, and that he was embarrassed.)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: וְכִי יְרִיבֻן אֲנָשִׁים וְהִכָּה אִישׁ אֶת רֵעֵהוּ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Ches of Mesechta Bava Kama.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about the damages that a person needs to pay if he hurt another person.
Perek Alef teaches us that there are 5 kinds of damage a person might be responsible to pay, and explains what each of them are. The Rambam also explains in what kinds of cases each of them would need to be paid.
Perek Beis explains how we figure out how much to pay for each kind of damage. One halacha is that the Beis Din can only force someone to pay if he touched the other person, but if he scared the person without touching him, the Beis Din can’t force him to pay, but Hashem will. (“Patur Midinei Adam, Vechayav Bedinei Shomayim.”)
Perek Gimmel explains how much a person needs to pay for embarrassing someone else. There are certain amounts (called “knasim”) for different things they did to embarrass them. If someone embarrasses a Talmid Chochom, even just with words, they are supposed to pay 35 gold dinarim! The Rambam says that we do this even outside of Eretz Yisroel, and it happened many times when he lived in Spain!
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Today we start to learn about the Sotah, a woman whose husband thinks she may have done certain aveiros.
We make her drink a kind of holy water which will prove if she did or didn’t do the aveira.
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learned what the Rebbe Rashab said about chinuch: Just like there’s a mitzvah of tefillin that everyone needs to do every day, everyone needs to think about the chinuch of their children every day, how to influence them that they should follow the derech of Yiddishkeit and Chassidus.
In a sicha, the Rebbe explains why the Rebbe Rashab used the example of Tefillin, and not another mitzvah that we do every day. One of the things that are special about the mitzvah of tefillin is that it is one of the mitzvos where the kavana is also very important! We are not supposed to just put on tefillin, we are supposed to think about the purpose of the mitzvah, that our heart and mind should have bittul to serve Hashem, Shibud Halev Vehamoach.
Our thinking about chinuch needs to be like the mitzvah of tefillin! We shouldn’t spend the time just to be yotzei, we should put our minds and hearts to it, and make sure that our children and every single Yid will follow the path of Torah that they are taught.
See Likutei Sichos chelek Alef p. 9
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In today’s Chumash, Revi’i of Shemos, we learned that Hashem promised Moshe, “Behotziacha Es Ha’am Mimitzrayim, Taavdun Es HaElokim Al Hahar Hazeh.” When you take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, they will serve Hashem on this mountain. “This mountain” means Har Sinai, the place where Hashem was speaking to Moshe, and that is where they will receive the Torah later. Hashem tells Moshe that this is the reason why the Yidden will be coming out of Mitzrayim, to serve Hashem with the Torah and mitzvos!
Moshe Rabbeinu later told this to the Yidden, and they were very excited that they were going to get Hashem’s precious treasure! From when they actually left Mitzrayim, they even counted the days until they would receive the Torah at Har Sinai.
Hashem didn’t only give the Torah to the Yidden who lived then, Hashem gives the Torah to each and every one of us today!
We should also be excited about having Hashem’s special treasure, and using as much of it as we can! So when we have free time, we should use it to learn parts of Torah we never learned before, and try to find lessons from what we learn to give chayus in our life.
See Der Rebbe Redt Tzu Kinder, vol. 4 p. 72
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We learned that the section “Le’olam Yehei Adam” and the first Shema were made a part of davening close to the end of the time of the Amora’im. At that time, there was a gezeira from the king that the Yidden could not say Shema. Since it was dangerous to say Shema together in shul, the Chachomim told the Yidden to say Shema secretly in their homes before coming to daven.
But even though it only became part of davening then, the words of Le’olam Yehei Adam were written over 100 years earlier.
Where did they come from?
Eliyahu Hanavi used to come often to learn with a certain Amora, called R’ Anan.
R’ Anan wrote down the things he learned from Eliyahu Hanavi. This later became a sefer, which we still have today, called Tana Devei Eliyahu (“We learned from Eliyahu”).
One of the things R’ Anan wrote down was how Eliyahu Hanavi explained a certain nevuah from the Navi Amos. The Navi says that there will come a time when Yidden will be hungry — but not for food or water, they will be hungry for words of Torah!
Eliyahu Hanavi said that this nevuah was also speaking about a time of Shmad, when goyim will try to keep Yidden from doing mitzvos. This will make the Yidden feel hungry for Torah and mitzvos, because they won’t be able to keep them in public!
R’ Anan wrote down what Eliyahu Hanavi said about this, beginning with the words “Le’olam Yehei Adam,” and ending, “Amar Hashem.” This whole section of davening is the words of Tana Devei Eliyahu.
See Beis Yosef siman Mem-Vov se’if Ches, Tana Devei Eliyahu perek Chof-Alef
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On Shabbos, we are not allowed to separate things that are mixed together. That is the melacha of borer.
So what do I do if I want to eat a plum, but it’s mixed together with a whole bunch of other fruit in a bowl? Can I choose the plum, even though I will be separating it from the other fruit? What if I want to eat just the potatoes from the cholent, am I allowed to?
If we are separating things as part of eating (Derech Achilah), it is not the melacha of borer.
How do we know that we are separating things in a way of eating?
The Chachomim give us three conditions. If we have all three of them, we are showing that it is being done Derech Achilah, as a part of eating.
1) Miyad (right away) — We can only separate it right before we use it.
2) Biyad (with our hand) — We need to do it using our hands or a regular keili like a fork or spoon, not using a special tool for separating things (like a strainer).
3) Ochel Mitoch Hapesoles (food from the not-good part) — We need to take out the good part to use, not take out the not-good part to throw away.
There are many details about what each of these three conditions means. IY”H we will learn many halachos about exactly what they are and how they work.
See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Shin-Yud-Tes, se’if alef to gimmel; Shabbos Kehalacha perek Yud-Beis; Hilchos Shabbos by Pansa’im
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
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The Gemara in Sotah says that it was in the zechus of the righteous women that we left Mitzrayim! “Bizchus Noshim Tzidkonios Shehayu Be’oso Hador, Nigalu Avoseinu MiMitzrayim.”
What did they do that was so special?
Even though Paraoh made a wicked gezeira that their children would be thrown into the water, the women just ignored it! They continued having children anyway, not thinking about what would be.
We can learn from them how to bring the Geulah nowadays!
The world says that we need to worry about what will happen with our children when they get older, if we don’t teach them secular subjects so they can make a good parnasa. We should ignore them! We should educate our children to have a chayus in Torah and mitzvos, and Hashem will take care of the children (and parents too!) with whatever they need at the right time.
This will both save our own children and bring the Geulah for all of the Yidden!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Alef p. 113
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לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
נפטר ב' מנחם אב ה'תשע"ג
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